


Finding Crookshanks

by katmarajade



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst, Best Friends, Bromance, Cats, Crookshanks, Gen, Lost Pets, Reunions, Ron/Harry if you squint
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-17
Updated: 2014-03-17
Packaged: 2018-01-16 02:47:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 926
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1329025
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/katmarajade/pseuds/katmarajade
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He's lost so much of his family.  He's lost Harry.  He's lost Hermione.  Crookshanks is the only one who's stayed the same, just as ugly and crochety as before.  Ron can't lose him too.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Finding Crookshanks

It's raining and he's outside looking for a cat that he doesn't even really like. The chill is starting to seep through his jacket. Tucking his head down to cut down on the wind, Ron feels a fresh rush of frustration and sadness.

He misses his family, which has been turned upside down in the aftermath of the war. Everyone's dealing with grief in their own particular messed up way. He misses his friends.

Harry vanished six months after the final battle. No one's heard from him since. Rumors abound and the Prophet has an entire weekly column dedicated to supposed Potter sightings or new theories about his whereabouts. Harry left a note for Ron and Hermione, which is more than he did for anyone else. He's safe, it was his choice to go, and he's sorry. Somehow that doesn't make it hurt less.

A month after Harry disappeared, Hermione was awarded a sizable grant to study the practical application of Arithmancy on Healing in Australia, just a quick apparition away from where her parents had stayed after the war. With a flourish of book packing and bushy-haired hugs, she left him too.

She left Crookshanks in his care. Crookshanks liked Ron about as much as Ron liked Crookshanks, but they had declared an armistice of sorts. Hermione thought they'd be good for each other.

Now he's lost the cat. Crookshanks slipped out earlier and no amount of calling and bribing with tasty sardines has helped. It's why Ron's out in the rain, crunching through a heavy layer of dead leaves, desperately searching for a cat he only barely tolerates.

He can't lose him. He promised Hermione he'd look after the ugly, squashed-faced fur ball. He doesn't like the cat, but maybe he's more attached than he realized, because the thought that maybe he's lost Crookshanks too is gnawing at his belly. Crookshanks may be annoying, grouchy, and demanding, may be the ugliest cat Ron's ever seen, but he's here. Or he was.

His family is wobbling, barely hanging on. He's lost Fred, and George seems as good as lost these days too, unable to function, disconcertingly quiet, floating through his days like a living ghost. Percy's thrown himself into restoring the Ministry to its former austerity, and Ron thinks he might actually live in the Ministry, he's there so much. Bill and Charlie went away again, and they don't come home anymore. Maybe it's easier for them that way. Ginny, frustrated over being constantly coddled, went over the edge when Harry disappeared without even leaving her a note. She ran off with one of her too-many beaus and is planning a wedding from somewhere over on the continent. His parents keep pretending that nothing's changed, as if they might bring it all back the way it was if they just believe hard enough.

He's lost so much of his family. He's lost Harry. He's lost Hermione. Crookshanks is the only one who's stayed the same, just as ugly and crochety as before. Ron can't lose him too.

He roams for hours, the afternoon light dimming into dusk and fading into darkness. Streetlights blink on, illuminating the gray. The rain has slowed to a drizzle, just enough to reassure the passersby of its continued presence. Finally, he has to give up for the night. Exhausted, hungry, and feeling lonelier than ever, he trudges back to his flat. His footsteps fall hard on the wet stone steps as he climbs the three flights of stairs to Number 22. Tears of frustration bite at the corners of his eyes, mixing with the damp air, but Ron's damned if he's going to start crying over this. It's just a cat. Just a bloody cat.

Reaching the landing, he freezes. In front of the door to his flat, hunched over on the cold, wet ground, is a familiarly scruffy head of black hair squashed up against an oversized blob of ginger fur. He blinks firmly to make sure he's not gone mental and started seeing things.

"Harry?" He whispers hoarsely and the face pops up in surprise.

"Ron, hi. I ... erm, I found the cat," Harry manages, trying to push his glasses up with his shoulder blade while holding tightly to an exasperated (and oddly self-satisfied) looking Crookshanks.

"Oh ... good. Stupid bugger ran off and Hermione'd have my guts for garters if I let anything happen to the thing." Ron unlocks the door and ushers Harry inside. Crookshanks leaps down daintily and sashays immediately to his food dish. Ron stares after the cat then turns to his long lost best friend.

"You've been gone a long time, Harry," he says, unable to look into Harry's face directly.

"Yeah, erm, I had to get away for a while. The press was hounding me and I was going mad and I just needed a break. I'm sorry I didn't stay in touch. I thought about you all the time though." Harry shrugs apologetically. The nervous green eyes are staring at him now, anxiously awaiting some sort of reaction to his sudden reappearance. For a moment, Harry looks just like the twitchy, unsure, scared little boy that Ron remembers from first year.

Ron walks forward and hugs Harry fiercely.

"I missed you, you loser," he says, punching Harry's scrawny shoulder while still holding on tightly. Harry sighs and hugs him back, glasses digging into Ron's neck.

They stand there for several minutes, clinging to each other after so long apart. In the back ground, Crookshanks licks his paws smugly. His work is done. 


End file.
